Hospitals and Physicians Confirm Mobile Technology Helps Improve Patient Outcomes
Black Book Research has published the results of a survey on the use of mobile technology by hospitals and physicians. The report showed 90% of the surveyed hospitals and 94% of physician respondents are using mobile technology and believe that it has helped improve patient safety and outcomes.
770 hospital-based mobile technology users and 1,279 physician practices participated in the survey, which was conducted during the 4th quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018. The survey revealed 96% of hospitals have plans to invest in new clinical communications platforms this year or have already adopted one. Out of those that have already adopted a new system, 85% of hospitals and 83% of physician practices say they now have better communication between care teams and patients and their families.
The number one choice of communication system among hospitals and physician practices is a secure text messaging platform due to its convenience, security and ability to improve productivity and profitability. Encrypted email has also been adopted by 98% of hospitals and 77% of physician practices. Intrusion detection systems are also widely used.
Secure text messaging solutions have been specifically made for the healthcare industry by many providers. These have been developed with the necessary safeguards to ensure they meet HIPAA requirements. Since texting is second nature for most healthcare employees, getting to know how to use the system takes little time, which has helped with buy in.
The study also showed 63% of survey respondents have had ongoing challenges with mobile technology, and even though secure methods of communication have been made available, 30% of respondents report having received text messages or emails containing ePHI from unsecure sources.
The survey also respondents to rate their experiences with various secure text message platform providers.ย TigerText, the leading vendor of secure text messaging solution in the healthcare industry, was rated highly by physicians and hospitals. Other preferred providers were Spok, Vocera, Imprivata and Doc Halo.
Hospital systems and inpatient organizations ranked Spok the highest. Cerner and Qlik also received high scores. Physician organizations rated Doc Halo the highest among the secure communications platforms. Other platforms with high scores included Perfect Serve, OnPage, Patient Safe Solutions, Voalte and Telemediq.